Ansel Adams

by Mary Street Alinder

  29 Edwin Land to Ansel Adams, quoted in Mary Street Alinder and Andrea Gray Stillman, eds., Ansel Adams: Letters and Images, 1916–1984 (Boston: Little, Brown, 1988), 374.

  30 Ansel Adams to Edwin Land, September 22–27 and October 2, 1983, in M. Alinder and Stillman, Letters and Images, 383–384.

  31 Wensberg, Land’s Polaroid, 223–241.

  32 “Dr. Edwin Land, Photography Pioneer 1909–1991,” International Photography Hall of Fame & Museum Bulletin 7, no. 2 (spring 1991): 1.

  33 A. Adams with M. Alinder, Autobiography, 375.

  34 A. Adams, “Conversations,” 341.

  35 Ibid.

  36 A. Adams with M. Alinder, Autobiography, 376.

  37 A. Adams, Examples, 132–135.

  38 Donald W. Olson, “Yosemite Moonrises and Moonbows,” Celestial Sleuth, Using Astronomy to Solve Mysteries in Art, History and Literature (New York: Springer Praxis, 2013), 113–143.

  39 Ansel Adams to Din and Terre Land, April 10, 1959, quoted in A. Adams with M. Alinder, Autobiography, 298.

  40 A. Adams, “Conversations,” 501.

  41 Ansel Adams to Beaumont and Nancy Newhall, July 8, 1962, CCP.

  42 A. Adams, “Conversations,” 537, 721.

  43 Clark Kerr, “The Yosemite of Higher Education,” in Melinda Wortz, Ansel Adams: Fiat Lux (Irvine, Calif.: Regents of the University of California, 1991), 12; Liliane De Cock, “Working with Ansel on Fiat Lux,” ibid., 30.

  44 A. Adams, “Conversations,” 70.

  45 Lloyd Eric and Alice Means Reeve, with photographs by Ansel Adams and Pirkle Jones, Gift of the Grape, Based on Paul Masson Vineyards (San Francisco: Filmer Publishing Company, 1959).

  46 A. Adams, “Conversations,” 70, 518; A. Adams with M. Alinder, Autobiography, 298. Portfolio Three was sponsored by the Sierra Club, and Portfolio Four by the Varian Foundation in memory of its cofounder Russell Varian with the proceeds to benefit Castle Rock State Park.

  47 Don Worth, interview with the author, September 20, 1995.

  48 After 47: Gretchen Garner, Gerry Sharpe, Sun and Shade: A Photographer’s Story (Columbus, Ohio: Gretchen Garner, 2012).

  49 Ibid.

  50 Liliane De Cock, interview with the author, September 20, 1995; Dorothea Lange, “The Making of a Documentary Photographer,” an oral history conducted 1960–1961 by Suzanne B. Reiss, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 1968, 299.

  51 Don Worth interview.

  52 Ansel Adams to Nancy Newhall, April 10, 1962, CCP.

  53 Ansel Adams to Beaumont and Nancy Newhall, November 1, 1961, CCP.

  54 Ansel Adams to Beaumont and Nancy Newhall, August 5, 1961, CCP; Don Worth interview.

  55 Stewart McBride, “Ansel,” American Photographer 4, no. 6 (December 1980): 59.

  56 Anne Adams Helms, The Descendants of David Best and Jane Eliza King Best (Monterey, Calif.: Anne Adams Helms, 1995), 70–76; and Anne Adams Helms, The Descendants of William James Adams and Cassandra Hills Adams (Salinas, Calif.: Anne Adams Helms, 1999), 213–216.

  57 Ibid., 77–91.

  58 Garner, Gerry Sharpe, Sun and Shade.

  59 Liliane De Cock interview.

  60 Ibid.

  61 A. Adams, “Conversations,” 261–262. Another version is recounted in McBride, “Ansel,” 59.

  18. MORTAL COMBAT

  1 David Brower, For Earth’s Sake: The Life and Times of David Brower (Salt Lake City: Peregrine Smith Books, 1990), 258.

  2 Ibid.

  3 Sierra Club Bulletin, handbook edition, December 1967, 54–55.

  4 Robert Cahn, “Ansel Adams, Environmentalist,” Sierra, May–June 1979, 36, 45.

  5 Paul Strand with Nancy Newhall, Time in New England (New York: Oxford University Press, 1950).

  6 Ansel Adams with Mary Street Alinder, Ansel Adams: An Autobiography (Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1985), 215.

  7 David Featherstone, “This Is the American Earth: A Collaboration by Ansel Adams and Nancy Newhall,” in Michael Read, ed., Ansel Adams: New Light (San Francisco: The Friends of Photography, 1993), 62–73.

  8 Ibid., 72–73.

  9 Ibid., 63, 68, 69; Ansel Adams and Nancy Newhall, This Is the American Earth (San Francisco: Sierra Club, 1960).

  10 Edward Steichen, A Life in Photography (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1963), unpaginated.

  11 Edward Steichen, The Family of Man (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1955).

  12 A. Adams with M. Alinder, Autobiography, 209–210.

  13 Brett Weston to Nancy Newhall, March 5, 1955, quoted in Featherstone, “This Is the American Earth,” 67.

  14 Ansel Adams, “Conversations with Ansel Adams,” an oral history conducted 1972, 1974, 1975 by Ruth Teiser and Catherine Harroun, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 1978, 476.

  15 Alfred Runte, Yosemite: The Embattled Wilderness (Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1990), 196.

  16 A. Adams with M. Alinder, Autobiography, 154–156; Ansel Adams to Harold Bradley, Richard Leonard, and David Brower, July 27, 1957, in Mary Street Alinder and Andrea Gray Stillman, eds., Ansel Adams: Letters and Images, 1916–1984 (Boston: Little, Brown, 1988), 246–249; Ansel Adams to Fred Seaton, Sinclair Weeks, and Conrad Wirth, July 7, 1958, ibid., 251; Ansel Adams to Nancy Newhall, July 11, 1958, ibid., 251–252.

  17 Ansel Adams, “Tenaya Tragedy,” Sierra Club Bulletin, November 1958, 1–4 and photo insert.

  18 Tom Turner, Sierra Club: 100 Years of Protecting Nature (New York: Abrams, Inc., 1991), 186–190.

  19 Ibid.

  20 Michael P. Cohen, The History of the Sierra Club (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1988), 339–345.

  21 Ibid.; Ansel Adams to Phil Berry, president, the Sierra Club, April 27, 1969, The Bancroft Library, University of California.

  22 Tom Turner, Wild by Law (San Francisco: Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, 1990), 3–23.

  23 Cohen, History of the Sierra Club, 357–365.

  24 Montgomery Brower, “David Brower,” People, April 30, 1990, 103–106.

  25 Ibid.

  26 Turner, The Sierra Club: 100 Years of Protecting Nature, 178.

  27 Ansel Adams to Sierra Club, Attention: George Marshall & David Brower, in M. Alinder and Stillman, Letters and Images, 292.

  28 Doris Leonard, interview with the author, September 11, 1995.

  29 Cohen, History of the Sierra Club, 124.

  30 Doris Leonard interview.

  31 Cohen, History of the Sierra Club, 423–434.

  32 Ibid., 423.

  33 A. Adams, “Conversations,” 689; Cohen, History of the Sierra Club, 423.

  34 Richard Leonard, “Sierra Club White Paper,” undated [probably October 1968], The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

  35 Ansel Adams to David Brower, November 9, 1966, in M. Alinder and Stillman, Letters and Images, 293.

  36 Cohen, History of the Sierra Club, 421–422. Ansel had been calling for Brower’s removal as executive director for more than a year. Ansel Adams to the directors of the Sierra Club, February 15, 1967, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

  37 Cohen, History of the Sierra Club, 424–428.

  38 “Sierra Club Annual Organization Meeting May 3–4,” Sierra Club Bulletin 54, no. 5 (May 1969): 3.

  39 John McPhee, Encounters with the Archdruid (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1971), 208–220.

  40 Marjorie Bridge Farquhar, “Pioneer Woman Rock Climber and Sierra Club Director,” an oral history conducted 1977 by Ann Lage, in “Sierra Club Women II,” Sierra Club History Committee, Sierra Club, San Francisco, 1977, 45.

  41 Philip Hyde, “Ansel Adams,” Sierra Club Bulletin, October/November 1971, 20–21. Courtesy of Philip Hyde.

  42 Glen Martin, “In Defense of the Earth,” San Francisco Examiner and Chronicle, Sunday Interview, May 7, 1995, 3.

  43 President Lyndon Johnson, in Ansel Adams and Nancy Newhall, A Mor
e Beautiful America (New York: American Conservation Association, 1965).

  44 David and Victoria Sheff, “The Playboy Interview,” Playboy, May 1983, 82.

  45 Ibid.

  46 Ansel Adams to President Jimmy Carter, November 8, 1979, in M. Alinder and Stillman, Letters and Images, 355–356; Ansel Adams to President Jimmy Carter, July 16, 1980, ibid., 359–361; Ansel Adams to President Jimmy Carter, November 9, 1980, ibid., 363; President Jimmy Carter to Ansel Adams, November 9, 1979, ibid., 357; President Jimmy Carter to Ansel Adams, February 15, 1980, ibid., 357; President Jimmy Carter to Ansel Adams, August 25, 1980, ibid., 362.

  47 Ansel Adams to the Editor, Monterey Peninsula Herald, September 1, 1965.

  48 A. Adams, “Conversations,” 659.

  49 Craig Juckniess, “A Tribute: Ansel Adams,” Ecology Law Quarterly 14, no. 1 (1987): 5.

  50 A. Adams with M. Alinder, Autobiography, 352–355.

  51 Bill Barich, “Bound for Glory,” San Francisco Examiner Magazine, May 1, 1994, 30.

  52 Associated Press, “Yosemite Plan Seeks to Protect River, Public Access,” The Press Democrat, February 15, 2014, A4.

  53 Tom Stienstra, “Rationing Paradise,” San Francisco Chronicle, August 6, 1995, C-1, C-6.

  54 James Schermerhorn, “Curbing the Auto’s Reign at Yosemite,” San Francisco Examiner, July 12, 1970, A4.

  55 Associated Press, “Yosemite Plan Seeks to Protect River, Public Access.”

  56 A. Adams, “Conversations,” 422.

  57 Milton Esterow, “Ansel Adams: The Last Interview,” ARTnews 83, no. 6 (summer 1984): 89.

  58 Ansel Adams to Dorothea Lange, May 15, 1962, in M. Alinder and Stillman, Letters and Images, 281, 283.

  59 Ansel Adams, “The Horace M. Albright Conservation Lectureship: The Role of the Artist in Conservation,” lecture given at University of California, Berkeley, College of Natural Resources, Department of Forestry & Conservation, March 3, 1975, 6.

  19. PRICE RISE

  1 Ansel Adams, “The Aggressive Persuasion: A Credo for Survival,” Chubb Fellowship Lecture, Yale University, CCP; Robert Turnage, “The Role of the Artist in the Environmental Movement,” The Living Wilderness, March 1980, 13.

  2 Ansel Adams with Mary Street Alinder, Ansel Adams: An Autobiography (Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1985), 156–157.

  3 Jonathan Spaulding, Ansel Adams and the American Landscape (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995), 351.

  4 Liliane De Cock, interview with the author, September 20, 1995.

  5 Ansel Adams, “Conversations with Ansel Adams,” an oral history conducted 1972, 1974, 1975 by Ruth Teiser and Catherine Harroun, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 1978, 301.

  6 Ansel Adams to Marion Patterson, September 19, 1972, in Mary Street Alinder and Andrea Gray Stillman, eds., Ansel Adams: Letters and Images, 1916–1984 (Boston: Little, Brown, 1988), 317–318.

  7 A. Adams with M. Alinder, Autobiography, 106, 157.

  8 Ibid., 103–104.

  9 Ted Orland, Ansel’s photographic assistant from 1972–1974, remembers Ansel repeatedly stating that if he signed the print that meant he had made the print.

  10 James G. Alinder, “Adams Family Values, View Camera, March–April 1995, 16–19; and Ansel Adams Gallery website, www.anseladams.com [accessed December 3, 2013].

  11 A. Adams with M. Alinder, Autobiography, 178.

  12 “Drive a Datsun, Plant a Tree,” Datsun television commercial (1972), CCP.

  13 A. Adams to M. Patterson, September 19, 1972.

  14 A. Adams with M. Alinder, Autobiography, 178.

  15 “The New Tree Sell,” Time, August 21, 1972, 65.

  16 A. Adams, “Conversations,” 645.

  17 A. Adams to M. Patterson, ibid.

  18 A. Adams with M. Alinder, Autobiography, 179.

  19 Jane Alexiadis, “What’s It Worth? Ansel Adams’ Tin Can Print,” San Jose Mercury News, June 24, 2011. www.mercurynews.com/ci_18332988 [accessed December 3, 2013].

  20 A. Adams with M. Alinder, Autobiography, 361.

  21 Invoices from Ansel Adams to Wolverine Worldwide, 1972 and 1973, CCP; letters between Bill Turnage and Wolverine Worldwide, 1972 and 1973, CCP. Wolverine published a portfolio of reproductions of eleven of Ansel’s black-and-white photographs under the title Ansel Adams’ America.

  22 Richard D. James, “Artist of Light,” Wall Street Journal, July 31, 1978, 1.

  23 Ibid.

  24 Carole Lalli, “Portrait of the Photographer as a Grand Old Man,” Esquire, September 1979, 46.

  25 Jim Powell, “The Most Sought-After Photographs Today—Should You Consider Buying Them? An In-depth Look at the Ansel Adams Market,” Collectibles Market Report, January 1980.

  26 A. Adams with M. Alinder, Autobiography, 362; “A.A. to Stop Printing,” Exposure, Journal of the Society for Photographic Education 13, no. 3 (September 1975): 32.

  27 Nicolai Cikovsky, Jr., “Notes on the Museum Set,” in Ansel Adams, Ansel Adams: Classic Images, The Museum Set (Washington: National Gallery of Art, 1985), 26; A. Adams with M. Alinder, Autobiography, 362; James Alinder, “Artist of Light,” 7.

  28 Elizabeth Bumiller, “Images of Harry Lunn: The Photo Mogul & His Developing Empire,” Washington Post, August 5, 1980, B1, B9.

  29 Powell, “The Most Sought-After Photographs Today.”

  30 Lalli, “Portrait of the Photographer as a Grand Old Man,” 46.

  31 Bumiller, “Images of Harry Lunn.”

  32 Margaret Loke, “Harry Lunn Jr., 65, Art Dealer Who Championed Photography,” New York Times, August 24, 1998, www.nytimes.com/1998/08/24/arts/harry-lunn-jr-art-dealer [accessed December 3, 2013].

  33 Bumiller, “Images of Harry Lunn.”

  34 “Announcement of Ansel Adams Photograph Prices Effective August 8, 1978,” press release, Washington, D.C., Graphics International Ltd.

  35 Ansel Adams to Dear Friend, 1976, Alinder collection.

  36 James G. Alinder, “Adams Family Values,” View Camera, March–April 1995, 16–19.

  37 Tim Hill, interview with the author, March 29, 1995.

  38 Stewart McBride, “Ansel,” American Photographer 4, no. 6 (December 1980): 60.

  39 Ansel Adams to Beaumont Newhall, December 5, 1975, CCP.

  40 David McAlpin to Ansel Adams, January 26, 1972, CCP.

  41 David McAlpin to Ansel Adams, January 16, 1972, quoted in A. Adams with M. Alinder, Autobiography, 231.

  42 Hilton Kramer, “Ansel Adams: Trophies from Eden,” New York Times, May 12, 1974, 23.

  43 A. Adams with M. Alinder, Autobiography, 368–370.

  44 Ibid. A reproduction of Cemetery, Edinburgh, Scotland (1976) can be found on page 368. Ansel Adams to Beaumont Newhall, October 1, 1976, CCP.

  45 A. Adams with M. Alinder, Autobiography, 368–370.

  46 Henri Cartier-Bresson to Ansel Adams, August 1974, CCP.

  47 A. Adams with M. Alinder, Autobiography, 370.

  48 Ansel Adams to John P. Schaefer, March 23, 1975, in M. Alinder and Stillman, Letters and Images, 334–336; Ansel Adams to John P. Schaefer, May 19, 1975, ibid., 336–339.

  49 “Collections,” Center for Creative Photography, www.creativephotography.org/collections [accessed December 3, 2013]; Terry Pitts, interview with the author, October 4, 1995. Mr. Pitts was the director of the Center for Creative Photography.

  50 bid.

  51 The exceptions are the Yosemite Special Edition Prints.

  52 A. Adams with M. Alinder, Autobiography, 360.

  53 Ibid.

  54 J. Alinder, “Adams Family Values.”

  55 McBride, “Ansel,” 60.

  56 Teiser and Harroun, “Conversations with Ansel Adams,” 569.

  57 Photographs of the Southwest (1976); The Portfolios of Ansel Adams (1977); Taos Pueblo (facsimile edition of the 1930 book, 1977); Ansel Adams: Fifty Years of Portraits (1978); Polaroid Land Photography (1978); Yosemite and the Range of Light (1979); The Camera (1980); The
Negative (1981); Examples: The Making of 40 Photographs (1983); The Print (1983).

  58 Dorothea Lange, “The Making of a Documentary Photographer,” an oral history conducted 1960–1961 by Suzanne B. Riess, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 1968, 201.

  59 A. Adams with M. Alinder, Autobiography, 346–347; and Ansel Adams to President Gerald Ford, “New Initiatives for the National Parks,” CCP.

  60 President Gerald Ford to Ansel Adams, April 8, 1975, CCP.

  61 David and Victoria Sheff, “The Playboy Interview,” Playboy, May 1983, 86, 223.

  62 Tim Hill interview.

  63 John Szarkowski, “Introduction,” William Eggleston, William Eggleston’s Guide (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1976).

  64 David McAlpin to Ansel Adams, June 10, 1976, CCP. David Hunter McAlpin III died on June 1, 1989. He was ninety-two years old. An alumnus of Princeton, he endowed a professorship of the history of photography in the art department and also funded a department of photography in the Princeton Art Museum. “David Hunter McAlpin ’20 *21,” Princeton Alumni Weekly, November 22, 1989.

  65 Ansel Adams to John Szarkowski, June 22, 1976, in M. Alinder and Stillman, Letters and Images, 339–341.

  66 John Szarkowski to Ansel Adams, June 28, 1976, ibid., 341, 343.

  67 A. Adams with M. Alinder, Autobiography, 370; Ansel Adams to John Szarkowski, December 27, 1976, CCP.

  68 A. Adams with M. Alinder, Autobiography, 370.

  69 James, “Artist of Light,” 7.

  70 Tim Hill interview.

  71 Lalli, “Portrait of the Photographer as a Grand Old Man,” 46.

  72 John Szarkowski to Ansel and Virginia Adams, March 11, 1977, CCP.

  73 Ben Lifson, “Adams as Epic Hero,” Village Voice, September 24, 1979, 88.

  74 Tim Hill interview.

  75 A. Adams with M. Alinder, Autobiography, 370.

  76 D. and V. Sheff, “The Playboy Interview,” 67.

  77 Powell, “The Most Sought-After Photographs Today.”

  20. TOO LITTLE TIME

  1 Milton Esterow, “Ansel Adams: The Last Interview,” ARTnews 83, no. 6 (summer 1984): 89.

  2 These ideas developed in conversation with Tim Hill, March 29, 1995.

  3 Richard D. James, “Artist of Light,” Wall Street Journal, July 31, 1978, 1.